EU - Various Bits and Pieces from the Chapter on Mercury

EU 12

Anyone who knows for sure
and is convinced he will live after death
is concerned about heavenly matters,
since they are an everlasting source of happiness,
but not about worldly matters,
except so far as the necessities of life demand it.
This being the nature of the inhabitants,
it is also that of the spirits who come from there.

EU 14

The spirits of Mercury surpass others
in the amount of knowledge they possess,
both about matters within the solar system
and in the starry sky beyond it.
What they have once learned
they retain and recall
whenever similar facts are observed.
This is another clear proof
that spirits have a memory,
one in fact much more perfect
than human beings have.
They retain what they see, hear or otherwise grasp,
especially if they get pleasure from it,
as these spirits do from knowledge.
Things that give pleasure and are loved
flow in as if of their own accord and are retained.
Other things do not penetrate the memory,
but only make superficial contact and slip away.

EU 20

The spirits of Mercury are totally different
from the spirits of our world,
since these are not so much interested in ideas
as in worldly, bodily and earthly matters,
which are material objects.
For this reason the spirits of Mercury
are unable to associate with the spirits of our world,
and wherever they meet them, they run away.
The spiritual spheres
which emanate from either party
are more or less antagonistic.
The spirits of Mercury claim
that they do not wish to look at the wrapping,
but the ideas stripped of their wrappings,
that is, what is inside.

EU 22

What surprised me
was that their speech gave an impression
of a rolling wave,
but was still so ready and quick.
Since there were many of them speaking at once
their speech reached me in waves.
A remarkable feature was
that it slipped towards my left eye,
though they were standing to my right.
This was because the left eye corresponds to
knowledge of abstract ideas, matters, that is,
which are in the province of intelligence;
the right eye corresponds to matters
which are in the province of wisdom.

EU 33

Later I showed them pictures of the kinds of birds,
both large and small, to be found in our world.
Lifelike pictures of such things
can be shown in the next life.
On seeing these birds pictured,
at first they wanted to change them,
but then they were pleased with them
and became quiet.
This was because birds mean the knowledge of facts,
a thing they perceived
by means of an influence they then felt.
So they stopped changing them
so as to avoid taking them into their memory.
Later I was allowed to show a picture to them of
a most beautiful garden full of lamps and lanterns.
Then they paused and their attention was caught,
because lamps together with lanterns
mean truths shining as the result of good.
This made it plain
that they could be kept watching material objects,
so long as at the same time
their meaning in the spiritual sense was hinted at.
What is conveyed by the spiritual sense
is not completely abstract,
since it is represented by these objects.

EU 35

. . . every truth shows up best
when contrasted with its opposite.

EU 39

In the next life
those who do not live by their faith lose it,
because it is not a part of the person.